MEMPHIS, TN, April 4, 2018 – Crowd members shouted down two mayors and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam during the MLK50 commemoration ceremony at the National Civil Rights Museum.
Minutes before the 6:01 p.m. hour when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered 50 years ago while standing on the Lorraine Motel balcony, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell joined Haslam in catching the wrath of audience members who chanted, “No change” and “No change – 50 years.” A din of boos overrode Haslam, whose term ends this year and who has presided over eight years of a Republican legislature which refused to accept federal funding for health care to lower-income families.
The crowd did not shout over the remarks of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who scolded the state legislature for refusing to expand health care for Tennesseans under the Affordable Care Act — even though it would have been 90% funded by the federal government.
Strickland spoke for about a minute and a half from written remarks and seemed to complete his statement. Haslam seemed to cut his remarks short, speaking for 59 seconds, during which the boos never subsided.
Prior to the speech-making, which included several ministers and Poor People’s Campaign co-chair Rev. William Barber of North Carolina, rumors swirled that President Obama would show up and speak. A suspected motorcade sighting was even reported. That Obama would appear seemed highly unlikely, but it seemed very likely that he would make a recorded statement which could appear on a Jumbo-tron — which he did. His speech was punctuated by cheers.
RANKING POVERTY
Memphis was the second poorest large city in the county on April 4, 1968, and now is the poorest. While some conditions have improved, the poverty, education system, low wages and opportunities appear stuck in a cycle that benefits large institutions and multinational corporations, some observers point out. The cheap-labor economy is no accident, say many Memphis residents, and is “engineered” to fashion a “new slavery.”
ACTIVIST ROUNDUP?
Citizens also cited Tuesday’s apparent police roundup of activists, a labor organizer and a Latino journalist as a sign that things are no better than 50 years ago, when the Memphis Police Department had “red squads” and a Domestic Intelligence Unit to spy on activists who were not breaking any laws. A 1978 court order and decree based on an ACLU lawsuit forbids the city from gathering domestic intelligence, although police have only increased their surveillance capabilities since then. A lawsuit brought last year by the ACLU based on that order claims the city is still engaging in spying on citizens, citing the mayor’s “black list” of activists who were required to be escorted by police if they appeared at City Hall.
DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE
Even after arrests had been made on Tuesday of nine persons, who were at a demonstration against forced prisoner labor at ICE detention camps, MPD officers were filming the crowd standing on the sidewalk next to the Shelby County Justice Center at 201 Poplar, and an MPD surveillance van was in the middle of the street.
Filmmaker Gary Moore operates the non-profit Citizens Media Resource and Moore Media Strategies consultancy.